Masaharu Homma

Masaharu Homma (27 November 1887-3 April 1946) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army who was most infamous for leading the Japanese Fourteenth Army during the invasion of the Philippines, forcing American prisoners of war to embark on the Bataan Death March.

Biography
Masaharu Homma was born on 27 November 1887 on Sado Island, Japan, and he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907 and from the Army Staff College in 1915. He spent eight years as a military attache in the United Kingdom and served with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in 1918, earning the Military Cross and gaining a deep respect for the West. His proficiency in English led to him being sent as an attache to the UK again in 1930-1932, and he attended the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932. He attended the 1937 Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party in Germany while accompanying Prince Yasuhito on a trip to Europe, and he was later sent to China to blockade Tientsin before taking command of an army in Taiwan.

At the start of the Pacific War, Homma was given command of the Japanese Fourteenth Army, and he gave orders to his men to treat the Filipinos as friends and to respect their religion and customs. His commander Hisaichi Terauchi and his subordinate Masanobu Tsuji hated his liberal approach towards the Filipinos, so Tsuji sent orders in Homma's name to commit executions and horrible acts. Shortly after the fall of Corregidor, General Tomoyuki Yamashita took over command of the Japanese forces in the Philippines, but Homma remained in nominal command of the Fourteenth Army. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes and was executed by a US Army firing squad outside of Manila on 3 April 1946.